Twins (1988 film)

For other uses, see Twins (disambiguation).

Twins
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ivan Reitman
Written by	William Davies Timothy Harris William Osborne Herschel Weingrod
Produced by	Ivan Reitman
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Danny DeVito Kelly Preston Chloe Webb Bonnie Bartlett
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by	Donn Cambern Sheldon Kahn
Music by	Georges Delerue Randy Edelman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 9, 1988 (1988-12-09)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$216.6 million

Twins is a 1988 American comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman about unlikely twins (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito) who were separated at birth. The core of the film is the relationship between DeVito's streetwise character and Schwarzenegger's intellectual persona. The original music score was composed by Georges Delerue and Randy Edelman (Edelman would score three more films for the director, whereas this was Delerue's only work for him).

The film was a commercial success, earning $11 million on its opening weekend, and going on to gross $216 million worldwide. Schwarzenegger and DeVito rather than taking their usual salary for the film, both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film's box office, which resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their movie careers.

Plot

Julius Benedict (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Vincent Benedict (Danny DeVito) are fraternal twins, the results of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to produce the perfect child. To the surprise of the scientists, the embryo split and twins were born. The mother, Mary Ann Benedict, was told that Julius died at birth, and not told about Vincent at all. Julius was informed that his mother died in childbirth. Vincent believed his mother abandoned him. Each twin is unaware of the other's existence.

Vincent was placed in an orphanage run by nuns in Los Angeles while Julius was taken to a South Pacific island and raised by Professor Werner (Tony Jay). On Julius' 35th birthday, Werner tells him that he has a twin brother. Julius leaves the island to find him. In Los Angeles, with no one but himself to rely on, Vincent escaped from the orphanage and became an indebted, small-time crook.

Julius discovers Vincent lives in L.A., and travels throughout the city. Though intelligent, he is extremely naïve about the real world his more streetwise brother inhabits; at one point he inadvertently foils an attempt by two thieves to mug him. He finds Vincent in jail for unpaid parking tickets. Vincent is scornful when Julius tells him they are twins, but lets Julius bail him out and then drives off. Julius tracks Vincent to his workplace, where he is being beaten by one of the loan shark Klane brothers for an unpaid debt. Julius overpowers Morris and earns Vincent's respect and trust. He meets Vincent's on-again-off-again girlfriend, Linda Mason (Chloe Webb). Knowing little about women, Julius is oblivious to the flirtatious advances of her blond sister Marnie (Kelly Preston), who dislikes Vincent, but eventually falls in love with her. Vincent shows Julius a document he stole from the orphanage which proves their mother is still alive but, believing she abandoned him, he has no interest in finding her.

Vincent steals a Cadillac to sell to his chop-shop contact, and discovers a secret prototype fuel injector in the trunk, which was to be delivered to an industrialist, Beetroot McKinley, in Houston for $5 million. He decides to deliver it himself and collect the money. The original delivery man, Mr. Webster (Marshall Bell), begins ruthlessly searching for the person who stole the prototype. At Julius' insistence, the two couples go on a cross-country journey with the sisters to track Traven down. They eventually find him in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and he tells them that their mother is living in an art colony near Santa Fe. The Klane brothers find them again, with the intent of killing Vincent, but Julius and Vincent fight them off for the last time. At the art colony, a woman informs them that Mary Ann is dead and they leave. In reality, she is their mother but disbelieved their story. Meanwhile, Webster is also getting closer to finding Vincent.

While Julius accepts their mother's death, Vincent becomes bitter and storms off, leaving Julius and the girls stranded in New Mexico, to deliver the engine to McKinley. Linda tells Julius about the engine and Julius once again sets off to find his brother. Vincent delivers the stolen property to Beetroot, but Beetroot and his assistant are shot and killed by Webster, who then turns his attention to Vincent just as Julius arrives. A cat-and-mouse chase ensues and Julius intercepts Webster as Vincent flees, but Vincent, feeling his brother's presence, reluctantly goes back and gives up the money to Webster. Webster prepares to kill them both anyway for seeing his face, but Vincent kills him by unloading a heavy chain that lands on Webster's head and buries him. Julius and Vincent make their peace, and Vincent reluctantly agrees to return the money and the stolen engine to the authorities, but he secretly skims off one million. Meanwhile, the twins' publicity reaches the art colony, and their mother realizes that the two "comedians" who visited her were her long-lost sons after all. She violently confronts Traven for lying to her and manages to track her sons down.

Julius and Vincent marry the Masons, and use the $50,000 reward money to start up a legitimate consulting business, using Julius' knowledge and Vincent's questionable business savvy.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Julius Benedict
• Danny DeVito as Vincent Benedict
• Kelly Preston as Marnie Mason
• Chloe Webb as Linda Mason
• Bonnie Bartlett as Mary Ann Benedict
  • Heather Graham (uncredited) as young Mary Ann
• David Caruso as Al Greco
• Trey Wilson as Beetroot McKinley
• Marvin J. McIntyre as McKinley's man
• Marshall Bell as Mr. Webster
• Tony Jay as Professor Werner, also the narrator
• Hugh O'Brian as Granger, one of the twins' fathers
• Jason Reitman as Granger's grandson
• Catherine Reitman as Granger's granddaughter
• Nehemiah Persoff as Professor Mitchell Traven
• Maury Chaykin as Burt Klane
• Tom McCleister as Bob Klane
• David Efron as Morris Klane
• Sven-Ole Thorsen as Sam Klane
• Gus Rethwisch as Dave Klane
• Richard Portnow as Tony, the chop shop owner
• Frances Bay as Mother Superior
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Asian man
• Elizabeth Kaitan as Secretary
• Joe Medjuck as Photographer at the start of the film
• Nicolette Larson as Singer
• Jeff Beck as Guitarist
• Terry Bozzio as Drummer
• Robert Harper as Gilbert Larsen
• Dendrie Taylor as Agnes, the neighbor

Filming

The bridge that Vincent crossed was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos, New Mexico.

Reception

Twins received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 34% based on reviews from 29 critics. However, Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "engaging entertainment with some big laughs and a sort of warm goofiness."

Sequel

In March 2012, Universal announced the development of a sequel titled Triplets. Schwarzenegger and DeVito will return, with Eddie Murphy as their long-lost brother. Reitman will co-produce.

See also

• Junior: A similar 1994 movie also starring Schwarzenegger and Devito
• List of American films of 1988

External links

• Twins at IMDb
• Twins at Rotten Tomatoes